What is the relationship between globalization and democracy? Michael Hardt
and Antonio Negri’s Empire, published in 2000, attempted to answer this
question. Hailed as provocatively ambitious and jeered as impenetrably odd, the
book created some stir when it appeared, and as post–September 11 developments
have renewed and intensified talk of an American imperium, a number of
thoughtful scholars and public intellectuals have since engaged Hardt and
Negri’s arguments. It is now possible to read Empire through the lenses
of those who have been ruminating on it for several years and also in light of
postpublication amplifications by the authors, notably the recent appearance of
their follow-up second volume, Multitude.